California Biographies Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 ABRAM HUNTER MURRAY. Jr. Practically the entire life of A. H. Murray, Jr., has been passed in Tulare county, where he is well known. Upon the home farm near the present city of Visalia he was born November 12, 1863, being the youngest among the seven children of Abram Hunter Murray, Sr. The educational advantages of the growing town of Visalia were within his reach and of these he availed himself to the utmost, taking the regular course of study in the old Visalia Normal, from which he was graduated in 1882. Meanwhile, during a portion of the years 1879 and 1880, he had been employed at The Dalles, Ore., where his father temporarily engaged in business. Soon after his graduation from the Normal he took up the study of short- hand in San Francisco and when he had completed the course he returned to Visalia. For a time he was connected with an abstract office as clerk and stenographer and then entered the service of another abstract firm, with whom he remained until his appointment in 1888 as deputy to the county clerk. John G. Knox. In September, 1890, he was appointed official reporter of the superior court of Tulare county and has held the position ever since, with the exception of the years 1896-98, when he was engaged in private business. In his profession he has the reputation of being an expert, and among the court reporters of the entire state none stands higher than he in accuracy of transcripts and thoroughness of work. A man of progressive spirit, he has been eager to adopt any plans calculated to benefit him in the discharge of his official duties. Among other im- provements, he was one of the first to adopt the graphophone in the transcribing of his notes. The first efforts in this line were not successful, but after certain changes had been made in the cylinders, the machine began to work with accuracy, and he now uses it to the entire ex- clusion of the old-fashioned system of transcripts. Within one-half mile of the city limits of Visalia Mr. Murray owns a fruit ranch of twenty- three and one-half acres, of which eight acres are in an orchard and the balance in alfalfa. The supervision of this property enables him to gain a needed relaxation from the trying responsibil- ities of his work as reporter. The comfortable home occupied by his family was built by him- self some years since and is one of the attractive dwellings of Visalia. An influential Democrat he holds office as chairman of the county central committee and is a leader in all local work of the party. Fraternally he is a prominent Mason, being master of Visalia Lodge No. 128, F. & A. M. ; member of Visalia Chapter No. 44, R. A. M. ; Visalia Commandery No. 26, K. T., Islam Temple, N. M. S, and the Order of the Eastern Star. In addition, he is an active member of Visalia Parlor No. 19, N. S. G. W. In Visalia Mr. Murray married Miss Karoline A. Knox, by whom he has one child, Rita. Mrs. Murray was born in the Greenhorn mountains in Kern county and received her education in Vis- alia, where she is a leading member of the Episcopal Church, the Eastern Star, and Visalia Par- lor, N. D. G. W. In the latter organization she acts as grand organist of the Grand Parlor, to which she presented a march of her own composition. The Parlor adopted it as their official march and published it under the name of the Karoline march in her honor. In other ways her talent as a pianist has brought pleasure to her friends and honors to herself. The family of which she is a member traces its genealogy to Scotland, but became early settlers of Virginia and a number of them bore arms in the Revolution. Her father, John G. Knox, a California pioneer of 1857, was born in Greene county, Mo., being a son of George and Amanda (Gaw) Knox, natives of old Virginia, but long residents of Greene county, Mo., where George Knox fol- lowed mercantile pursuits, also engaged in the steamboat business and the Santa Fe trade. In a family of four daughters and four sons, of whom two daughters and two sons survive, John G. Knox is the oldest one now living. He was born February 19, 1838, and after completing the studies of the district schools attended the Jones Commercial College at St. Louis for a year. When seventeen years of age he became a clerk on one of his father's boats. la 1857 he made the overland trip to California, whither an older brother, George, had migrated in 1850. The journey was made with ox-teams to Salt Lake, and thence by pack animals on the old Mormon trail to San Bernardino, Cal., thence to Visalia and on to the Kern river mines, where Mr. Knox became interested in buying and selling mines, and also engaged in the stock busi- ness. In 1865 he was elected county clerk, but after three months he resigned for the privilege of residing in the Greenhorn mountains. He was interested in the organization of the county of Kern and served there as an under-sheriff. In 1869 he came to Visalia, where he first served as deputy county clerk and later for twelve years held the clerk's' office. In 1893 he took out pa- pers as a notary public and United States commissioner and at this writing is referee in bank- ruptcy, also owns an interest in the Tulare Abstract Company. Politically he is a Democrat and fraternally holds membership in the Independent Order of Foresters. Elected a member of one of the first boards of school trustees in Visalia, for years he continued in that position and filled the same with characteristic fidelity. Near Farmersville, Tulare county, he married Julia Brown, who was born in Indiana and came to California in 1854 at the age of eight years, accompanying her father, John Brown, a pioneer miner of Tulare county. Of their marriage three children were born, namely: Karoline, wife of A. H. Murray, Jr., of Visalia; Nora, wife of W. T. Nicholson, who is supreme court reporter in San Francisco; and John Franklin.